WHAT MAKES THE ZUMWALT PRAIRIE WORK?

Belding ground squirrels in their "garden"

The rich volcanic soil of the Prairie is home to great numbers of Belding ground squirrels—known locally as "red diggers." The squirrels live on the native bunch grasses, and in turn, they are the prime food source for all the hawks and other raptors—apparently their great numbers mean an easy meal for all the large predatory birds and enable the raptors to live in close proximity without too much competition for food.

In our day of driving along the Prairie roads, we saw so many Red Tailed Hawks, we quit enumerating them—just noting that we saw "many." Karen was looking for some less-common hawks, the Ferruginous and Swainson's Hawks. The Ferruginous eluded her, but we "probably" saw one or two Swainson's Hawks, plus several Harriers and a Peregrine falcon—sitting on a fence post!

A big surprise was to see several Golden Eagles—probably yearlings.

 

 

Yearling Golden Eagle and Magpie

 

 

 

Yearling Golden Eagle

 

 

 

 

 

And an even greater surprise was to look up into an old barn and see three still-fluffy adolescent Great Horned Owls peering down at us! Karen felt the fact that we were seeing so many young birds was a good sign—Zumwalt Prairie must be a good place to raise a family, if you are a raptor.

An abandoned barn--now home to Great Horned Owls

 

A curious young Great Horned Owl

 

The Prairie is also a good place to raise cattle—the native bunch grasses are very nutritious and cattle love them. In much of the West, the cattle have "loved" native grasses into extinction—but not so on Zumwalt Prairie. The local ranchers have followed a very conservative method of grazing—during the harsh winters, they keep the cattle at lower elevations, and don't bring them up to the Prairie until mid-June. By then, the bunch grasses have had time to "harden off" and aren't so vulnerable to trampling. The ranches are small in size, so their herds are small, and moved frequently. All this apparently has kept this prairie healthy and able to support both cattle and wildlife.

Cattle on the Zumwalt Prairie

 

The only inhabited ranch we saw on the Prairie

What we did NOT see during our day on the Prairie were other humans! Our tally of automobiles showed three pickups and one SUV—the grand total. It was a feast for the eyes and soul to look out over the undulating prairie and see only waving grass, flowers, canyons, mountains and sky.

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